The Seven Commandments Of Illustrations

1. Thou shalt not overuse them.
It is definitely possible to have far too many sermon illustrations. The problem is that illustrations are like chocolate: good in small doses but overindulgence makes recipients feel sick and disorientated! Don’t feed the congregation too many!

2. Thou shalt not underuse them.
While I can think of some preachers who pass out too much chocolate, there are others who never offer so much as a chocolate button! Such sermons feel heavy, abstract and dense.

3. Thou shalt not fail to illustrate the point.
If your illustration doesn’t illustrate the point your making with a great degree of exactness don’t use it. One danger for preachers is to want to use some illustration simply because its ‘a good one.’ Yet the illustration may only relate tenuously to the point in question!

4. Thou shalt not make them overly long
I recently heard of a closing illustration that was between 12 and 15 minutes long. It was an epic. In my opinion, that’s just too long for an illustration. Overly long illustrations begin to dominate the sermon rather than serve the sermon. So we preachers should aim for brevity. How long should an illustration be? As long as it takes to tell it clearly, vividly and forcefully – that, and no more.

5. Thou shalt not misuse humour
First of all, if you are not wired with humour (and many of us are not!) don’t force the issue. No one’s called you to be a comedian but a faithful communicator of Gods Word. Don’t think you’ve got to use humour just because some great conference speaker you heard was ‘really funny’. On the other hand, if you are wired with wit, be careful. For example, there’s a difference between genuine humour (Jesus used it) and flippancy. Sarcasm may produce laughs but might simultaneously reveal some sinful attitudes in the preacher! My general rule is: never give an illustration which depends on the congregation finding it funny.

6. Thou shalt not be pastorally imprudent
The pulpit is no place to break pastoral confidences. Be very careful when you get into the territory of talking about that Christian ‘you won’t name’ or that ‘past church you attended.’ Often everybody knows what church you’re speaking about! Furthermore, with audio on the internet, the person at the last church can listen to your sermon. Therefore remember to ask people’s permission if you are using a story about them. And don’t forget: if you constantly break confidences, no one will take you into their confidence.

7. Thou shalt not use overly powerful illustrations
Some illustrations are just overly powerful. They are too good, too distracting, or raise too many tangential issues and questions. If you’re illustration will be ‘the only thing people remember’ don’t use it.

Work-Tools In Disrepair

Unfortunately, my laptop has decided to stop co-operating with me. Blog posts may therefore be a little infrequent until the computer is repaired. I’ll post as and when I can manage. Patience required!

A Young Scottish Preacher on Preaching

Scotland desperately needs faithful preachers. For this to happen, we need to see younger men taking up the mantle and unashamedly preaching the gospel.

One such ‘young gentlemen’ is Tommy Wright, a student on the Glo Bible College course and regular preacher around Lanarkshire. For the record, Tommy Wright is spending the next fortnight shadowing our work here at CC. Here’s a few questions I put to him:

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Tommy Wright and I live in Motherwell with my wife Fiona and my little boy Caleb who is two and a half years old. I have been a Christian for ten years, having grown up going to church in Motherwell and making a conscious decision to follow Christ when I was sixteen years old. Liberty Community Church in Bellshill is where we as a family now attend and worship having become members before Fiona and I got married five years ago. I am currently studying at Gospel Literature Outreach (GLO) in Motherwell on a 1 year ‘Training for Service’ course having taken a year out from my job working in social care for the Church of Scotland. As for the future after GLO, I’m honestly not too sure. I’m quite willing to do something different if I am called to do so but at the same time am willing to return to my job if that is what the Lord requires. Who said guidance is easy?

What is your impression of preaching in Scotland today?
I must say that over the past year I have been really encouraged by the amount of preaching events etc that have been organised and held within Scotland. It would appear that churches are once again beginning to recognise the significance of preaching, thus seeing the need to train and equip. This is a welcome shift away from a church culture which I believe because of its low view of preaching either failed to develop preachers or produced preachers who were more like entertainers rather than men of the word. Thankfully there are still some faithful men of the word who should be with us long enough to see the next generation take up the mantle.

What first attracted you to preaching?
To be honest I would have to say that I never actually aspired to be a preacher or ever thought that one day I would preach. I gradually got introduced to leading bible studies and preaching when I was around seventeen or eighteen during my time at Roman Road Gospel Hall in Motherwell. When I began to realise that maybe God had gifted me in the area of preaching that was when I sat up and began to take more of an active interest. I recognised the importance of preaching the word of God not only for the growth of the church but also for the salvation of the world. Having the opportunity to study God’s word and be involved in helping others to see the relevance and significance of it is something that continues to thrill and excite me.

Do you remember your first preach?
I do know if I remember my first preach but I remember the first time I was up front giving my testimony at a little church in Harthill. I was sixteen years old and had been a Christian for around six months. I was so nervous that I kept forgetting what I wanted to say, with people from the congregation even having to finish my sentences. If someone had told me at that point that within two years I would be up preaching I would honestly have laughed, or the way I was feeling may even have cried.

What help have you had in developing your preaching?
Even although I would never have seen myself sharing my testimony up front again never mind preaching I was given further opportunities over the next few years to both lead youth bible studies as well as preach. I think that being given these opportunities as well as others throughout the last number of years have been key to firstly recognising the gift as well as continuously trying to develop it. Being encouraged by fellow brothers and sisters to attend preaching conferences, read books as well as to embark upon the GLO course has also been fundamental to the development of my preaching. My wife Fiona has also been instrumental often helping me to recognise and correct mistakes that neither I nor anyone else have picked up on as well as encouraging me not to give up even after preaching what seems like the worst message ever. I genuinely thank God for my wives patience and guidance.

Any thoughts on how you’d like to continue improving as a preacher in the future, and what steps to take to make that happen?
Two particular areas (there are many more) where I would like to develop and improve would be with regards to the length of my preparation time and the speed of my delivery.

At the moment I find that it can take a matter of weeks (although not solidly of course) to prepare a sermon from start to finish. This to be honest is because I am learning more about as well as trying to apply good hermeneutics as well as homiletics. To do it right obviously takes more time. My aim would be that before long I would have developed a comfortable method for not only studying a passage but also developing and preparing my message. A key thing which I believe would help me in this area would be the addition of more preaching dates to my diary. Currently I probably only preach around ten times in a year, with sometimes there being a gap of a few months between dates. Preaching more regularly would hopefully allow me to gain some momentum and become more confident in what I am doing.

Latterly as I have had the opportunity to preach in England and Wales as well as through translation whilst in Italy, I have realised that the rate at which I speak whilst preaching is too fast. More recently I have tried to consciously speak more slowly from the very beginning of my message in order that as I progress and get more excited I will be speaking at a more reasonable speed. This is still very much a work in progress.

Continuing in prayer, attending preaching conferences and training events as well as continuing to extend my reading on the subject should hopefully help me to develop further in the future.

T4G (For Those Who Can’t Be There)

(photo courtesy of Tim Challies)

Sound Doctrine: Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry
(Ligon Duncan) Download*

Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church
(Thabiti Anyabwile) Download*

The Sinner Neither Able nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability
(John MacArthur) Download*

Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology
(Mark Dever) Download*

The Curse Motif of the Atonement
(R.C. Sproul) Download*

Why Did They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement (Al Mohler) Download*

How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Sacrifice (John Piper) Download*

Sustaining A Pastor’s Soul (CJ Mahaney) Download*

(Audio courtesy of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Listen online from this page)

Just Pick A Book, Any Book…

I’m sure many pastors who have agonised over ‘what to preach next’ might be somewhat startled by the following quote. Mark Dever writes,

“Generally, I do not choose a series of expositional sermosn because of particular topics that I think the church needs to hear about. Rather, I assume that all of the Bible is relevant to us all of the time. Now, I trust that God may lead to some particular books, but very often when I’m working on a text and reading through it in my quiet times the week before preaching, and working with it very seriously on the Friday, there will be things that I find in it that I didn’t expect to find at all.”
(Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, p 40)

So what do you think: should we be less intentional about what we choose to preach on?

Acts - The Spreading Flame

The Spreading Flame, our new series in the book of Acts, took light a week past on Sunday. In the next few days I am due to prepare my first sermon for it. In preparation, I have been tracking down resources to aid my trek through this rich but sometimes difficult book.

(Photo by ChromaticOrb, Creative Commons License)

Here’s what I have come up with so far. If you know of other online commentaries, articles, or helpful sermon series, do let me know and I’ll update the below list.

Online Commentaries
Commenting on the Commentaries of Acts - Gerald Cowen
John Calvin (vol 1)
John Calvin (vol 2)
John Gill
David Guzik
Matthew Henry - Exhaustive Commentary
IVP Commentary - Acts
Bob Utley

Commentaries to Purchase
Bruce, FF, Acts, NICNT, 1990
Bock, Darrell L, Acts , BECNT, 2007
Boyce, James M, Acts, Baker, 2006 (expositional)
Hughes, R Kent, Acts: The Church Afire, PTW, 1996 (expositional)
Longenecker, Richard N, Acts, EBC, 1981
MacArthur, J, MacArthur NT Commentary: Acts (volumes one & two), Moody, 1904 (expositional)
Marshall, H, The Acts of the Apostles, TNTC, 1980
Stott, J, Acts, BST, 1994
Wiersbe, W, Acts: Be Dynamic (1-12) & Acts: Be Daring (13-2 , BE Books (expositional)

Sermon Manuscripts
Steve Cole
Bob Deffinbaugh
Dan Doriani
John MacArthur
PG Mathew
Phil Newton
John Piper
Robert Rayburn
Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards & JC Ryle
Dr. Derek Thomas

Sermon Audio
Mark Dever - “The Message of Acts”
Dan Doriani
Steve Lawson (miscellaneous)
Phil Newton
John Piper
Dr Derek Thomas

Articles
William Barclay - A Comparison Between Paul’s Missionary Preaching and his Preaching In the Church
FF Bruce - Luke’s Presentation of the Spirit in Acts
FF Bruce - The Speeches in the Acts of the Apostles
The Purpose of Acts - D.A Carson and Douglas J Moo
David S Dochery - The Theology of Acts
Donald Guthrie - Recent Literature on Acts of the Apostles
Howard Marshall - The Resurrection In Acts of the Apostles
HN Ridderbos - The Speeches of Peter in Acts
Jerry Vines - Evangelistic Preaching in Acts

*Update*

Some more excellent online articles
R Kent Hughes, College Church (sermon audio)
Mike Campbell - Redeemer Church, Jackson, Mississipi (sermon audio)
S Lewis Johnson; Believer’s Chapel, Dallas (sermon audio)
Dan Duncan; Believer’s Chapel, Dallas (sermon audio)
Mark Dever, Capitol Hill: Acts 1-2, Acts 3-5, Acts 6-9, Acts 9-12, Acts 13-15, Acts 16-20, Acts 21-28.
Commentary of Paton James Gloag; volume one, volume two
(HT: David Reimer)

Reviewing the Reason for God

Appreciation to John Percival, my former colleague and Associate Pastor of St Peter’s Barge, Canary Wharf, London, for permission to post this helpful review.

Review of Tim Keller’s, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Scepticism, Dutton, New York, 2008, $24.95

If you have longed for a book to give a sceptical friend or to help you think about your faith in a deeper and more culturally engaged way then this is the book you’ve been waiting for.

Keller will be known to many as the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Traditionally the graveyard of American evangelicalism, Keller has planted a church in the middle of the city among the types of people who have always been thought of as the hardest to reach: the urban, the young, the sceptical and the postmodern. One feature that makes this book so rich and unique is the way that it reflects his experiences.

Keller starts with the concept of doubt and invites both believers and sceptics to examine and confront their doubts: for the believer, being honest about personal and cultural objections to faith; for the sceptic, being willing to question deeply cherished beliefs.

The book is split simply into two halves. The first half seeks to deconstruct doubt, and looks at the seven most common “defeaters” to Christian belief that Keller has encountered: the exclusivity of the Christian claims, the problem of suffering, Christianity as a moral straitjacket, the track record of the church, hell, science, and whether we can take the Bible literally or not. The second half seeks to build a more positive case for Christianity and examines the clues for God in creation and human nature before covering the more traditional turf of sin, redemption, and resurrection, finishing with a characteristically winsome appeal for our response.

What separates this book out from its predecessors is firstly Keller’s style. His writing is disarming, honest, and compelling, and is interspersed with real life anecdotes from the many people who have come to him with questions. The second thing to note is that Keller brings arguments to bear on his subject matter that will be new even to many Christians. He consistently engages with the toughest contemporary nuts to crack (even addressing issues such as social justice and human rights) and it is not without significance that his book has been described as a modern day Mere Christianity. Keller would no doubt shirk from the parallel but acknowledges Lewis’s influence (along with that of American theologian Jonathan Edwards) at many points.

This is great stuff from start to finish. Whether you are a sceptic seeking answers, a believer struggling with doubts, or just seeking to be better equipped to share your faith, then this is the book for you. Keller’s stated aim is to make a case for Christianity in general, and he does this humbly and truthfully in a way that would be especially accessible to the thinking outsider. Significantly, this book is distributed by a secular publisher; it has already made the Top Ten list of New York Times’ bestsellers, and it is gratifying finally to have a Christian book that engages with the likes of Dawkins et al on their level and in their natural habitat. Let us pray that many people buy this and read it: the more the better.

What Are Ministers to Preach?

“What ministers are to do is preach the Word - that is, the Word of God. A faithful minister does not preach the latest news. He does not preach his private opinion, his personal experience, or his political agenda. He does not even preach his own theological tradition, although of course he does preach within it, insofar as his system of doctrine is derived from Scripture. What he preaches is God’s eternal, infallible Word, as written in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.” (From Philip Ryken - City On a Hill)

Further links:
* 10 Questions for Expositors - Philip Ryken
* Philip Ryken sermons
* Mark Dever interviews Philip Ryken
* Sharper Iron - an interview with Philip Ryken

How I Prepare Sermons

The Preaching Course has had a breather over Easter but we anticipate its resumption next week. Whilst prepping for my forthcoming lecture I jotted down a few thoughts regarding the steps I take in sermon preparation. No doubt this is a process which most preachers don’t reflect upon until they are forced to ‘explain what they do.’ In any case, there are four steps which comprise my personal (and hardly infallible!) process:

A. Researching
• Reading the text prayerfully in different translations
• Questioning the text: what does it say? Where is the text located? What is the passage structure? How does the text point to Christ? etc.
• Consulting Commentaries for clarification, interpretation and help in communication.

B. Outlining
• Composing big idea
• Devising main points and subpoints
• Selecting appropriate illustrations
• Meditating on lines of application
• Deciding on introduction
• and possible conclusion

C. Writing
• complete manuscript from start to finish
• working toward a spoken style
• making final decisions on inclusions/omissions
• editing the draft
• internalisation of sermon

D. Preaching

And Our Wives Struggle Too…

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s post about the pastor’s peculiar holiday struggles, my wife Nicki has weighed in with some additional battles that she (like other wives) wages during the holiday season. Notwithstanding these posts, I do hasten to add that we actually DID have a good holiday!!

1. The pre-holiday washing, ironing and packing of clothes as well as organinsing the other 101 things you need to take with you can not only be very draining but stresses me out no end and makes me horribly irritable.

2. On the way there is a sense of relief and anticipation, though regret at the state in which you left the house and the things that you forgot to bring.

3. The need to bring structure (because that’s how it is) to what should be an easy-going unstructured time away.

4. Continuing with the mundane tasks of feeding, bathing, cleaning up after the children and generally feeling that you aren’t really getting a break at all.

5. Frustrated with knowing that your husband is also struggling to relax.

6. Frustrated that the kid’s behaviour is worse than usual.

7. Frustrated that someone, if not more than one, fall ill.

8. Wondering what’s happening back at home with church, family and friends.

9. Dreading the holiday ending, knowing that your husband will be going back to work.

10. Feeling the need to get back to normal and almost wishing you were back home.

11. Dreading going home to the pigsty that you left.

12. The prospect of a suitcase load of washing and ironing.

13. Coming home just as tired as you left.

Oxymoron: Relaxing Rev

Sun-laden beaches, tranquil strolls, long coffee-slurping afternoons. Who couldn’t relax in such an environment?

Pastors.

I answer both from personal experience and from hearing holiday reports from other vacationing shepherds.

So why is the holiday experience such a challenge for our select group? Upon returning from my own weeklong trip yesterday I jotted down a few thoughts. Let me know if any of this rings true for you too.

1. Pastors worship work and don’t appreciate rest.

2. Pastors think deep down that the world of their church revolves around their sovereign power and presence (how will they survive without us?)

3. Pastors are functional by nature, yet by very definition holiday’s are often devoid of functionality.

4. Pastors are often flock orientated not family orientated. For many of us casually conversing with our families for a prolonged period is unusual and, embarrasingly, difficult.

5. Pastors are often poor relaxers in the hustle and bustle of everyday life; this means that when full blown vacation comes they haven’t had much practice.

6. Pastors like to be solving problems. Holiday’s are too easy.

7. Pastors - many of them anyway - struggle with ‘guilt feelings’ that they are slacking. This is because they believe in unbiblical slogans like ‘I’ll have time to rest when I get to heaven, but not before then” and such.

8. Pastors, usually technologically connected and information overloaded, suddenly feel ‘out of the loop.’

9. Pastors, either out of insecurity or fear, need to endure the thought that someone else is filling their pulpit.

10. Pastors, now with some free time on their hands, can’t help but embrace the opportunity to plan ahead.

11. Pastors schedules are typically highly structured; holiday’s are full of unstructured time.

12. Pastors are too exhausted to enjoy the break.

Doctrinal Preaching Is….

“Doctrinal preaching is the magnifying of Jesus Christ through the explanation and application of the basic truths of the Christian faith. Doctrinal preaching must have an object. We cannot have faith in faith. Doctrinal preaching must have an object. We cannot have faith in faith; we do not worship worship; and doctrine cannot exist for doctrine’s sake. Doctrinal praching carries out the mission of magnifying Jesus Christ. To magnify Jesus Christ is not literally to make Him bigger. His influence is already felt in three worlds: heaven, earth and hell. Heaven is his throne, and the earth is His footstool. He fills the universe with His power. Rather, to magnify Christ through doctrinal preaching is to present Him in such a way that the hearers see Him in a more glorious, majestic, holy, sovereign, just, faithful and mighty manner than they have ever seen Him before.”

(Robert Smith Jnr)